I found another new expression of Church...

When you love the Church the Body of Christ the way I do stuff like this is heart-breaking. Read the article from the ichurch link copies below. Why is this expression of Church not a good thing. Does anyone know why?


"ichurch.jpgLast night I took part in the last part of the licensing of a new 'web pastor' on i-church, an online church based in the Diocese of Oxford in the UK. Sadly, as I had a prior commitment in the early part of the evening, I was only able to get along for the prayers and the last part of the liturgy, joining about 14 other people at this virtual service which took place in a chat room on the i-church site.

I don't think I've mentioned i-church before on this blog, so I'd better explain that it is an online community, started by (but not limited to) the Diocese of Oxford, one of the Church of England's Fresh Expressions. It currently 'exists' largely on an Invision Forum (although it is shortly to move to a new Drupal CMS site) with the integrated Chat module installed. As well as a range of discussion forums, prayer boards and so on, there are 'live' services daily in the Chat Room 'Chapel'. Feel free to investigate and maybe join - you will need to join i-church to 'see' the forums that make up the bulk of the community activity.

The licensing of a half-time Web Pastor (technically licensed as Priest-in-Charge) is a significant step forward in the life of the virtual community and gives a tremendous strength and stability that most Christian forums can only dream about. The service appeared to be a moving and powerful occasion, with the Archdeacon of Oxford (in the absence of the Bishop who was sadly not well) leading the service from his laptop, and various members doing readings, prayers and so on from all over the UK and beyond. One person took part in the service from a Starbucks over in the States!

For lots of people, i-church isn't just a bit of a hobby, but a real community and - for a few - it is their one and only Church. They worship, pray and find fellowship through the virtual connections found amongst the members of the community. It serves as living testimony that virtual church or cyberchurch that was talked about a lot in the late 1990's when the Internet first became mainstream can actually exist.

Nonetheless, there are significant questions to grapple with as we move further into a Web 2.0 enabled world. Andrew Jones (a.k.a Tall Skinny Kiwi) was asking important questions in this post from right back in 2004. In it he talks about the difference between 'representational' and 'recapitulation'.

* representational - cyberchurch as a representation of real life churches, but transferred over to new media
* recapitualtion - cyberchurch that seeks to implant itself incarnationally into the culture of the new media itself

He says that i-church belongs to the first category. I think that is true on the surface and the chapel services would be an obvious example - they tend to be virtual 're-enactments' of Anglican (or other) liturgy that would be and is used in real life 'bricks and mortar' churches. But, I do think that once you get beneath the surface of something like i-church, there is something more going on, something that happens in the connections and interactions between the members. In a very real sense, community is created, friendships formed, prayers said and relationships made at a profound level.

I'm hoping that once we move to the new Drupal site, there will be more opportunity to integrate Web 2.0 applications into the site, creating space where people can explore relationships in new and fresh ways.

Of course, none of this would be truly 'recapitulation' in the sense that TSK means - after all, i-church is still a 'come to us' church. You have to find it, join it, log in to it, come at specific times to the services, and so on. The problem is that even though Andrew wrote these words about four years ago, it's still not clear where 'church' is to be found within the constantly changing, constantly evolving world of Web 2.0. It's a bit like Pete Ward with his 'Liquid Church' stuff - he is brave enough to admit that he's never seen a liquid church, led a liquid church and doesn't even really know if one could exist in a meaningful way! I'm still wondering whether a truly incarnate example of recapitualtion cyberchurch can be planted in amongst the tweets, the pokes and the chatter of Web 2.0?